The term ‘post-pandemic’ has been thrown around a lot over the last few months, but there’s nothing like a hike in cases of people testing positive for covid-19 to bring us right back to down to earth with a bump. Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are estimating that a total of 2.3 million people in private households have contracted the virus over the past week, which is a leap of 32% from the previous week, so we think it’s fair to say that we’ve definitely not put pandemic behind us just yet.
What we are, is in a new virus mutation phase, with Omicron XE giving way to newer, more dominant strains, BA.4 and BA.5, and this change in covid-19 strain has impacted the most common symptoms that people with the virus are experiencing too.
In the early days of the pandemic, we were all told to keep an eye out for a fever, a dry cough, along with a loss of taste or smell, but according to new research from the ZOE app (which asks users to record their coronavirus symptoms) a headache is now the most-reported telltale sign.
More than two-thirds of patients who used the app to record symptoms, which were later analysed by researchers at King’s College London, said they’d experienced a headache. Others cited a sore throat, fatigue and runny nose as ailments too.
Professor Tim Spector, who heads up Zoe Health Study app, cautioned that having previously contracted the virus unfortunately may not offer all that much by way of immunity.
Spector said whilst speaking to The Guardian: “There are definitely a lot of people who got Covid at the start of the year who are getting it again, including some with BA.4 or 5 who had BA.1 or 2 just four months ago, who thought they would be protected.”
So much for herd immunity, hey?
And though the symptoms have changed, people testing positive for covid-19 might still experience a cough, fever or loss of smell and/or taste, so testing if you find you have any of these is still the safest, and most responsible thing to do.
We’d also recommend keeping to outdoor spaces as much as possible so as to lower the risk of infection from anyone who has the virus and continuing to wear a mask wherever you can indoors if you are worried.
We know we can’t lock ourselves in doors forever, but luckily, the weather is pretty good at the moment (with temps climbing to almost 30 degrees over the coming week), so we’ll be trying to socialise outside wherever possible – especially as we’ve got some pretty cute summer dresses to strut our stuff in.